Take your time management skills to the next level with these simple tips
There’s never enough time in a day.
Whether you run a business or work as an employee, whether you study or take care of your family — the day is always too short. These extra 15 minutes for a power nap. That extra hour to finish your project. That extra day to meet your deadline…
Are we really suffering from time deficiency syndrome?
Or are we stretching our schedule to impossible limits?
If you feel like it’s time to redefine your approach to time, have a look at these four methods:
Use the urgent/important principle
It’s very simple. All you need to do is to categorise your tasks in four groups:
1. Important and urgent
2. Important but not urgent
3. Not important but urgent
4. Not important and not urgent.
How to determine what is important?
According to Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. President who also served as a general in the US Army, important activities are the ones that help you achieve your goals.
What is urgent?
Anything that requires your immediate attention and is often related to someone else’s goals.
Once you’re done categorising your to-do list, focus first on the important and urgent items. Then move to the second category. You can schedule the important but not urgent activities for another day. Remember, these are the tasks that will help you achieve your own goals, so make sure to approach them with the right level of care and attention.
What about the not important but urgent tasks?
These items usually prevent you from achieving your goals. Feel free to delegate or reschedule them for another, less busy day.
Finally, cancel or ignore all items in the last category. These tasks are only distractions, so you can get rid of them with no remorse.
Ditch multitasking
You won’t save time when you combine one hundred tasks into one. It might seem counterintuitive, but multitasking actually decreases your productivity. It’s also more time-consuming. Many studies have shown that our brain is not designed for heavy-duty multitasking. Switching from one activity to another costs more time and energy than focusing on one task only. Although the “switching costs” are as low as a few tenths of second, this time quickly adds up when you keep multitasking throughout the day. What’s more, working on several tasks simultaneously will make you more prone to errors.
If you can’t focus on one thing at a time, start practising “a less harmful form” of multitasking such as pairing mindless activities with focus-dependent tasks. That could be for example walking a dog and taking a call or driving and listening to podcasts. But even with this mild variation of multitasking you may still fail to register many important details.
Say goodbye to perfection
The constant strive for perfection might be another reason why you feel there’s never enough time. Sometimes perfectionism will help you achieve better results, but in most cases it will become your obstacle to move forward. Perfectionism stops you from trying out new things and makes you procrastinate with your work and ideas.
Sometimes good enough really means good enough. So, instead of working hard to make everything 100% perfect, set your priorities and decide when to stop polishing your copy, project proposal or social media campaign. Remember that in most cases done is better than perfect and being overly obsessed with the details doesn’t have to bring you closer to your goal.
Turn on the auto mode
You don’t have to do everything by yourself. If you feel overwhelmed with your tasks at home or at work, start delegating or automating. That’s how you can gain more energy and breathing space. Analyse your schedule to find out which tasks can be automated or grouped into one slot. For example, you can run your errands in blocks, combining grocery shopping with a visit to the local post office so that you don’t have to go in the same direction twice. Maybe you have the option to shop online or shop for groceries once per week only. In this way, you can save quite a lot of time and money.
The same applies to your work. Look at the tools you use regularly — what can be done quicker and easier? Is your computer fast enough? Are your tools powerful enough to complete your work on time? Is there anything else you can do to speed up your processes?
With little tweaks here and there you can easily save time and boost your productivity. You don’t have to race against the clock, trying to juggle business and family responsibilities. All you need is a good preparation and a reasonable approach to your daily tasks.
Over to you
What do you think you can do today to better manager your time?
P.S. I share more tips on maximising your time in my free e-book “How to make the best use of your time”.
And if you’re looking for advice on how to manage your time when you have to juggle your business and motherhood, have a look at my book “You’ve got this: How to continue your freelance career when you become a mother”.
This post first appeared on Dorota’ blog at https://www.dorotapawlak.eu/four-time-management-tips-for-busy-freelancers/
